IBM is about to open a new facility in Dublin, Ireland, to support its "cloud computing" initiative in Europe. The initiative, IBM's attempt to attract customers to its model of using computing power as a service, is the end result of years of research by Big Blue. IBM has made a big bet on its new service as building out data centers is not an inexpensive proposition, but the rewards could be tremendous if the idea catches on.

Verizon is also looking forward through R&D, publishing specifications for a planned "open" cellular network that nearly any type of device will be able to connect with, perhaps enabling a roaming subscription that customers can use across several devices.

Microsoft's future vision includes programming changes that will allow developers to write software that takes advantage of parallel computing, a paradigm where software can take communicate with potentially hundreds of processors.